


Patient Ω

by Corinne K (Corinne_K)



Category: Free!
Genre: AU: A/B/O dynamics, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Attempt at Realism, Day 4 Destiny, M/M, Male Lactation, Mpreg, body image issues, the tags I never though I’d use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:54:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22002031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corinne_K/pseuds/Corinne%20K
Summary: A medical enigma leads to a very drastic life change for two men in love
Relationships: Matsuoka Rin/Nanase Haruka
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92
Collections: Rin & Haru Week





	Patient Ω

**Author's Note:**

> Guys, I wrote an omegaverse fic! It’s a bit of a weird take on the theme, but bear with me...  
> Sending a big thank you to Amberemerald for the beta!   
> And last but not the least, here’s the art that inspired this fic: https://twitter.com/hemu_HR/status/1129020818166505473?s=20

It was really scary in the beginning.

The first thing the doctor asked was, “When did you have your bottom surgery?”

Rin and Haru looked between them in confusion. Then, the lightbulb in Rin’s brain came to life, along with a wave of frantic gagging and stuttering-

“Nah-no-it’s-ohmyGod-no-I’m-jeez-“

Haru rubbed his back, still having trouble catching on, but trying to give some support, nevertheless.

Once he’d recovered his ability to be somewhat coherent, Rin clarified that he had never had any sort of transmasculine surgery. He’d presented male since birth, so whatever was wrong with his body…well, it had always been that way.

The doctor let that sink in. The ultrasound machine was still on, the wand in the doctor’s hand still pressed to Rin’s abnormally swollen abdomen. After thorough examination, gastric, hepatic, and urinary issues had all been ruled out. The GP was about to send Rin for a CT scan when the soft pulsing of a second heartbeat made itself heard through the inbuilt speaker in the machine. After some more pressing and probing with the wand, the image of an almost shapeless gummy bear had appeared on the screen. They now stared in loaded silence at the blurry image.

“Well,” the doctor reasoned, “intersex individuals are not uncommon, although pregnancy is rarer. You need to be seen by a specialist in order to clarify the details of your case, the mode of conception, and the viability of the pregnancy. In any case, you must think about the next steps.”

Rin had a feeling he knew what the doctor was talking about, and it made his heart clench in a very painful way.

“I will refer you to the ob-gyn service at the University Hospital. They’ll walk you through the whole process.”

Sometimes, Rin thought, doctors chose to talk in euphemisms. He remembered the same tone when his grandmother got her diagnosis, and, years later, when Haru injured his wrist and had to sit a season out. Thus, it was not hard to read between the lines: This freak pregnancy could cost him his life, and the odds were that he would have to choose between himself and the child. Haru held his hand and squeezed until it hurt.

—

_“My name is Rin Matsuoka. I have a girly name, but I am a boy.”_

His old mantra swirled in his head as he sat in the waiting room, holding the little pee bottle between his fingers, surrounded by women. How strange could life be?

There was a funny sort of bond forged in these places. People at the same stage would get scheduled for check-ups on the same days, so, over time, faces started to look familiar. There was Hinata, the veterinarian who lived in fear that the x-ray machine at work could harm her child; Hana, the lawyer, who had a list of names the size of a phone list but couldn’t settle on one that was eloquent enough for her standards; and Yui, the single working mother who was expecting twins and was, by far, the most relaxed of the whole lot. Their reaction to the guy with the bump was, at first, mostly suspicious, but over the weeks of sitting side by side, going through the same steps, the same pains, they seemed to have warmed up to him.

He was now four months along and still waiting for the final verdict on whether his pregnancy could proceed to term. It felt like a dirty secret, like a betrayal. Everyone there was in the business of creating life, and he was just sitting silently, with a ticking time bomb inside his belly. He felt queasy. His appointment couldn’t come soon enough – at least the agony of waiting would be over.

Haru returned with his flask full of water and offered it to Rin. It was lukewarm and somewhat helped settling Rin’s stomach. Just then, the nurse called his name.

As they entered the consultation room, alongside Professor Inoue, his ob-gyn, they saw another man. Tall, with light green eyes, long white hair and a matching goatee, he looked less like a doctor than a philosopher or an astrologist.

“Rin, Haruka, welcome. This is Dr. Bulgakov.”

The man waved. He was doctor after all, if the title was to be taken literally.

“Hello! I am very excited to meet you both. How have you been?”

“Well, I guess…” Rin answered.

“Dr. Bulgakov does research on ancient genetics. We believe he might have a lead on what is happening to you.”

—

“Haru, do you think we’re really the only ones left in the world?”

His boyfriend held him tighter. After the meeting with Dr. Bulgakov, they had both been too unsettled to return home, so they had roamed for a while, and found themselves in the community pool near Haru’s old bachelor flat. They sat with their feet in the water, pants rolled up to the knee. It felt comforting in a strange way, one he could only attribute to Haru rubbing off on him.

“If it’s just the two of us, how did we meet and get together? If you consider a universe of…basically everybody in the world, the probability is almost nil…”

“You sound like Rei.”

“Then what do you suggest, Master Saba?”

“Fate.”

“Really?”

Haru shrugged.

Maybe he was right, or maybe they were just a case of freak science. Who knows?

“There’s something off with his theory, though: in my case it’s pretty obvious that something’s wro-“

Haru covered his mouth with his finger. He hated it when Rin said there was something wrong about him. He got it - there was no point in wallowing in self-hatred over the way his body was made - but he also knew that his road to self-acceptance would be long and hard. But that was a topic for another time. He sighed, trying to push the thought aside.

“…That there’s something different from the norm,” he rephrased, “but how does he know that it also applies to you? Maybe if I had sex with any other guy the result would be the same…”

That further irked his partner, who turned his face away - a youth quirk he’d largely overcome, now that they were both in their mid-twenties.

“Sorry…”

“It’s fine,” Haru said, though he was clearly still grumpy. Thinking of it, Rin’s reasoning made sense, but the idea that they were the only alpha and omega left in the world, who had somehow met and fallen in love was much more…romantic.

“I guess I’m rubbing off on you too, eh…”

He smiled and Haru placed a kiss on his forehead.

—

The night when it all happened still felt like an odd dream. Rin had been waiting for Haru, who was set to return on that day from a meet overseas. The afternoon had been unremarkable. He’d done house chores - he knew Haru hated mess of any sort - watched YouTube and kept an eye on the flight app. When Haru got home they ate some sushi and went to bed.

Things got weird when he woke up, hot and bothered, at around 3am. He stumbled to the bathroom, with eyes half closed. He tried to relieve his bladder, but his dick seemed to have chosen that moment to stand to attention for no apparent reason.

“Ok, let’s deal with this first.”

Maybe he’d anticipated Haru’s return more than he’d thought, and when his partner had told him he was too exhausted to do anything, maybe he’d been just a tad bit disappointed…but this middle of the night wood was nothing but a bother…

He jacked off sleepily, facing the toilet. It took him a while to milk something out, but when he did, something else happened.

“What the hell?”

Along with the ejaculation, a trickle of something warm dripped down his thighs. He brought his fingers to his rear and blinked at the sight of a clear fluid. At least it wasn’t blood, but damn, the night couldn’t get any weirder.

“Are you ok?”

It was a most inconvenient time to have his boyfriend popping into the bathroom and finding him in that predicament. Haru seemed barely awake. The kind concern in his tired eyes made Rin’s heart break just a little.

“What is this?”

The lean swimmer was now behind him, and his hand had swiped gingerly between his buttocks. It was mortifying.

“It’s nothing,” he spluttered, turning around to swat Haru’s hand away.

It was too late, though. As they came face to face, Rin went livid. Haru seemed equally taken aback with his own actions. His eyes were blown wide, his lips parted, and the offending fingers now rested inside his mouth.

“What the hell are you doing?” Rin snapped.

“I… I don’t know…”

They stood chest to chest, the swell of their erections fighting in the narrow space between their bodies.

Rin’s hand grabbed Haru’s wrist and brought it down to the side, replacing Haru’s fingers with his mouth. Could he still taste himself that way? If there was any trace of the strange fluid, it had no distinctive taste or odour. Haru’s mouth tasted as usual, but somehow sweeter, with a heady rush of something imperceptible to the ordinary senses. He deepened the kiss, basking in the wet commingling of their tongues.

Haru was panting when they pulled apart.

“Rin…”

His boyfriend’s biceps flexed as they grasped Rin’s shoulders. Confusion hit him for an instant as Haru used that leverage to spin them around and bend Rin over the counter, facing the mirror. One hand rested on the back of Rin’s neck, the other around his waist, pulling him backwards. Haru began peppering kisses along his spine. Their bodies began undulating together, Haru’s cock pressed between Rin’s thighs.

“I’m dizzy,” Rin whispered, because nothing else came out. His brain was swimming in haze.

“Should we stop?”

“Keep going,” he breathed.

Haru welcomed his go ahead, sucking and biting the side of his neck, his shoulder, his clavicle. His hand left Rin’s neck and roamed towards his chest, pinching his nipples, massaging his pectorals. It was then that he felt another trickle of liquid run down his thighs. This was all very strange, but also very, very good. The contact with Haru’s body made his skin flush and he was sensitive all over, as though his whole body had turned into one big erogenous zone.

In this state, the glide of Haru’s dick entering from behind couldn’t feel more natural. The unnamed substance had lubricated him enough, and his usual resistances were down, so he opened up easily, letting Haru in.

“Oh... Rin...” Haru whispered.

Haru was fully inside him now, and Rin felt his body mould to Haru’s, as though they had always been meant for this. He felt that he could stay that way forever, and at the same time…he couldn’t. This was the stillness at the eye of the storm, but without the turmoil he’d be trapped forever. He craved the unrest, the edge, the fear. He needed to be taken and taken hard, and that was a most unsettling realization. He knew Haru was tired, but this was agony.

“Baby, I need you to move… Please…”

Haru obliged immediately. It was uncoordinated at first, but slowly Haru got into the rhythm of it, pumping in and out, rolling his hips, holding them together impossibly tight. They were a mess - bedheads and hickeys reflected in the bathroom mirror, illuminated by the warm spotlights. Rin could swear he saw Haru’s eyes go blank for a moment there, and was that blood on his lips?

As they moved together, pleasure drove them to quicken the pace - harder, faster. Rin hardly recognised the feral creatures in the mirror. Like beasts of old, they fucked until their breath was ragged, sweat coated their bodies and they found themselves screaming in unison in the throes of orgasm.

As he came down from the high, Rin felt Haru’s hand running through his hair and soft kisses tickling his temple. He also realised, with a certain level of panic, that Haru was still inside him, rock hard.

“Do you want to go again?” he panted softly.

Haru looked spellbound for a moment, but soon he answered. “I don’t think I can…”

Rin shifted his hips a notch, but he was still impaled on Haru’s cock.

“Can I stay inside you for a while?” Haru asked, surprising himself with his own words.

“Yeah…but, just, maybe, lying down?”

“Ok.”

They waddled to bed awkwardly, shuffling on their parted legs, and lied down on their sides. Haru glued his nose to Rin’s neck and, moments later, fell asleep.

In the morning, the only trace of their odd late-night horniness was a yellow stain on the sheets. They didn’t mention this night again, until much later, when the nature of their biology came under scrutiny.

—

“Braxton-hicks contractions are common during the third trimester. They serve to train the body for delivery. Whereas Braxton-hicks contractions are sporadic and generally not strong, real labour contractions increase in intensity and come at regular intervals that become shorter as labour progresses. In your case, we must perform a caesarean section before the second stage of labour begins, so you need to be extra vigilant. In doubt, come to the hospital. Is that clear?”

“Yes, doctor,” they replied at once.

At the seven-month mark, with a rate of foetal growth and development that could be deemed normal, Rin and Haru were finally coming to terms with the very real fact that they would become parents.

“Say, Haru… Do you think we should stop by the furniture shop?”

It was a loaded question. Like many parents-to-be who’ve experienced complications, Rin and Haru had postponed all sorts of preparations. Now that time was running short, they would have to make that call.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

They browsed through the nursery section, but couldn’t agree on what to buy. Haru though that an elevated crib with wheels and a collapsible side for night-time feeds was the most convenient, but Rin had fallen in love with a little rattan Moses basket, lined with a cherry blossom patterned fabric. It had made him a bit emotional that Haru didn’t share his enthusiasm for the cute piece. Haru knew full well what sakura meant to him. Was it that difficult to let him have this? In hindsight, he thought that was probably the hormones speaking, but that didn’t prevent them from going home empty handed and in a foul mood.

In the days that followed, they decided to start stocking up on less controversial items. They bought a pack of newborn diapers, some muslin cloths, a few sets of bodysuits, onesies, booties, and mittens, two pacifiers, and a white noise machine.

Feeding supplies were left out, as they led to a minefield of their own. It was still highly doubtful that Rin could in any way breastfeed the baby, despite the constant soreness and the changes in his nipples, which had gotten larger, darker, and more prominent… And there resided the other big problem: Rin had gotten self-conscious of his changed body. Throughout his life, he’d relentlessly trained to achieve top form. He’d become a competitive swimmer, used to have his physique on display. Now, as he looked at himself in the mirror, he saw a potbelly and the threat of stretch marks along the sides of his torso, he saw enlarged pectorals and big nipples. If he ever made it back to the pool, if he could somehow battle himself back to shape, would he be brave enough to show the marks of childbearing to the world?

In the end, they bought a set of bottles and a steriliser. They would work on the assumption that breastfeeding wouldn’t happen, and, over time, Rin eventually made peace with that fact.

They saw Bulgakov again and talked about the strange alpha-omega theory. The medical historian was interested in Rin’s teeth and Haru’s affinity with the water and ran a bunch of tests on them. He seemed fairly convinced that Haru and Rin were the last of an ancient lineage that had something to do with amphibious humans or whatnot but offered no conjecture on why they had both appeared within the same time-space and felt pulled towards one another.

Haru was strangely at peace with it all.

“Doesn’t it freak you out sometimes?” Rin asked one time, while scooping rice into their bowls. Haru flipped the saba with his usual effortless skill.

“It does,” he admitted. “But if it made it possible for us, as a same sex couple, to have a child together, I guess I see it more like a privilege.”

“Oh…”

“But I know it’s hard for you. I’ll do whatever I can to make it easier, but I don’t know to what extent I can really lighten your load…”

He’d always known that he was not alone in this, but to hear it spelled out so bluntly in Haru’s flat tone stirred something in him, made his eyes prickle with tears.

“Haru!”

Once again, those damn hormones.

—

Someone had told him that epidurals felt like turning into a mermaid - your upper body remained awake, while your lower half turned into a dead weight. Rin was having trouble even picturing the existence of his legs as he lay on the operating table, with a green cloth hoisted between his torso and the rest of his body. Haru sat by his side in scrubs, forbidden by the doctor from glancing over the cover. For a moment, there was nothing but nervous stillness and Professor Inoue’s sharp gaze focused on a point beyond Rin’s line of sight.

And suddenly there was another voice in the operating theatre. It was thin and somewhat nasal and came in waves of startled wails.

A nurse called Haru and off they went, to some place in the room that Rin couldn’t see. He counted the seconds in his mind. Almost five minutes had gone by when Haru came back, flanked by the nurse and holding a tiny bundle wrapped in green towels in his arms: their son.

The baby’s wrinkled pink skin was as just he’d imagined, but the halo of red hair adorning the little one’s head was a surprise. Bright blue-grey eyes opened for just a brief instant, before hiding again behind delicate newborn eyelids.

The doctor busied herself sewing him up, before he got wheeled back to the room. Haru was already there, and seconds later came a nurse pushing a wheeled contraption with an acrylic basket and their baby inside it.

There was hesitation in the nurse’s countenance. Rin was not unfamiliar to this kind of reaction. He’d spent nine months hearing people tell him in what ways his case differed from the norm.

“I suppose there’s still some benefit in doing a bit of skin to skin,” she muttered, picking up the baby, partially unwrapping him, and placing him on Rin’s chest.

Immediately, like a pre-programmed automaton, the small lips puckered, and the baby’s mouth found an exposed nipple and latched. Rin looked up from the nurse to Haru, panic washing over him. They hadn’t planned for this. The bottles and the powdered formula were on the ready. Was it ok to let the baby nurse? This was all too confusing.

“Wh-What do I do?”

“I will call the doctor.” The nurse turned on her heel and left in a rush.

Haru was still frozen in place, staring intently as their son kept nursing, seeking nutrition from a body that, for all that mankind holds as good knowledge, should not be able to provide it.

At that moment, their son pulled out and gave a deep cry, lips still moving up and down as if sucking the air.

“Should I…like…put him on the other one?”

“Yeah, why not…”

Haru sat sideways on the bed and helped Rin move the baby into the right position. Sure enough, the small lips immediately latched onto the other nipple.

By the time the paediatrician arrived, there was no science in the world that could convince them to stop feeding their son this way.

—

When they went home from the hospital, Rin was half expecting to put his son to sleep on the floor. Time had passed and they hadn’t decided on the crib. It was with surprise that he entered their bedroom and found the little rattan basket, lined with sakura patterned fabric, resting on a stand by the bed, ready to welcome its new occupant.

“Haru! You bought it!”

“Sakura,” his partner said. “I think we should name him Sakura.”

They looked at the baby wrapped in a white shawl, sleeping peacefully amid small pink flowers.

“Yeah, I think I like that.”

A month went by. After the rush of the first days, they finally had their minds clear enough to make some decisions. They agreed that Haru would keep training, but would skip any international meets during the first three months or so. After that, once Rin got the medical clearance to train, they would hire a nanny to cover for their working hours. For now, Haru still spent most of his time at home, keeping his training sessions in the early morning.

Rin’s ability to breastfeed had caused another uproar among the medical community. Bulgakov’s hovering had intensified, until Haru spat at his face that he should leave his partner and son alone if he wanted to keep his nose in one piece.

After a few tries, they had found a paediatrician that kept an open mind and advised them sensibly, taking their specific case into account. Despite the miraculous production of milk, the capacity of a male’s mammary glands was not the same as a female’s. After a few days, when the baby’s weight dropped below the normal range, they had to start supplementing with formula. Nevertheless, neither Rin nor Sakura were ready to do away with their little ritual, so Rin would always let his son nurse for a while, before offering the bottle.

They had grown so used to the act that, when the time came, Rin would simply raise up his tank top and let Sakura do the rest. One day, though, as he sat on the sofa with Sakura on his lap, he noticed Haru acting a bit odd. While ostensibly doing house chores, like laundry and ironing, he seemed to find an endless number of excuses to pass by and take a peep. Rin filed that observation for future use, but couldn’t help but feel a bit amused. Could Haru be turned on by something like this?

Later, when Sakura was asleep and Haru was seemingly done with all the housework, they found themselves on the sofa, side by side. During the past month, there hadn’t been much in the way of intimacy for both of them. They had busy, overwhelmed and painfully sleep deprived. On that day, though, a spark seemed to have been relit. Haru snuggled closer, thumb idly rubbing Rin’s cheek. Naturally, their lips came together and, not long after, Haru was wound up enough to take off his top and straddle Rin’s lap.

“Miss me?” Rin teased.

“You have no idea…”

They laughed and let their foreheads touch. Haru’s hands travelled from Rin’s waist up, stopping over his plump pectorals.

“May I?”

Rin nodded. Haru’s hands lifted the black cotton top and slid underneath the fabric. He couldn’t see what Haru was doing, but the sensation alone was mesmerizing. He was oversensitive and the rubbing and teasing was driving him mad. Haru didn’t seem any less turned on. Their kisses turned sloppy and open mouthed, they started to move against each other.

“Haru, the doctor said…”

“Make love to me.”

Their bedroom dynamics had never been an issue, but after all that had happened, the idea of being on the giving side took Rin by surprise.

“Aren’t you supposed to be the alpha male of the pack or something?”

“And what of it?”

Rin shrugged. “If you put it that way…”

They might be a genetic oddity among other humans. They might descend from some ancient hybrid species. Some might tell them that they have roles assigned by their biology, which they cannot escape. But here, in their little haven, they will always be themselves.


End file.
